Page 77 of King of Lies

“Th-there was a crash.”

“Yes,” he says. “Your car was tampered with.”

Tampered with? Meaning someone tried to kill me?

“You barely survived. I’m told it’s something of a miracle.”

“What about Leo? Harris?” I ask.

“Leo is barely better than you,” he says.

“And Harris?” I ask. He just shakes his head no and a sob is ripped from my chest. If it wasn’t for me, he’d be alive. This is all my fault.

“Shhh,” he says as he climbs onto the bed with me and pulls me into his arms.

“You have to let me go,” I cry.

“Never.”

“Please, this is all my fault. You have to. Don’t you see?”

I can’t breathe. The crying, the accident, Harris’s death, and even Rhys being here. It’s all too much. I gasp trying to get air, but I can’t.

“I don’t see anything, Stella. I’ll never let you go.”

“I know everything,” I plead. If I could just breathe, I’d tell him I know about his affair and how I was all some big plan. How he never loved me.

“You know not one goddamn thing.”

I gasp, trying to suck in a breath but it’s no use. My vision is going in and out like a bad tuner on an old TV set.

“Stella?” he asks as he shakes me, but I can’t turn back.

I need to go back under the water, back to the murky dark of silent retreat where my life can’t bother me.

“Stella!”

I slam my eyes shut and just let everything go black.

To be continued inCrown of Thorns…